Easter and other stories

We arrived back in SA on the Easter Weekend and went straight to the farm for a party weekend. After a few days in Joburg we headed off to Port Alfred for Morag and Colin's wedding. What a beautiful celebration. Thanks to Johan and Charlaine for hosting us at the Cowie River Resort and of course to Terry, Andrew, Atholl, Ann and others for making it such a great weekend. We decided to spend a little more time in the Eastern Cape and explore the Transkei for a few days. We loved Dwesa and Nkumbati; what awesome coastline and we had the places virtually to ourselves. Port St. Johns was disappointing; dirty and run down but we chose by luck the nicest of the guest houses in town and enjoyed an interesting evening with locals in the bar at Steve's Restaurant. We then spent a wonderful weekend at the Morgan Bay Hotel with Hanli and Andrew and friends. Such a relaxed old style hotel, just like we remember family holidays from the 70's.

All I ever needed to know about life, I learnt from travelling

"Get out of that classroom and off that Ipad and travel the world." That's about the only advice I can give your kids about life, so you may want to keep them away from me! Or Not!
When we were in Phuket we visited the Big Buddah up on the hill outside Chalong and in the carpark of all places ( I didn't even have to meet a monk ) I found the sign that summed up almost everything you need to know about being happy. It's my life on a billboard!

Gail's Interpretation

A lot of good weather, good friends and good food and wine.

A little healthy exercise and plenty of leisure time.

Not worrying about image or the material stuff.

Enjoying the present.

Phuket

It is always good to get back to Phuket and to our home away from home at Alen and Walter Guesthouse ( formally Capri.)This year they have opened The Godfather Italian Restaurant downstairs and you can get real expresso there. What a pleasure to find Patong and all the other beaches so clean and quiet. The new government has clamped down on all illegal traders and banned beach chairs and other structures from the beach itself. This coupled with the fact that tourist numbers are down has allowed Phuket's natural beauty to shine through once more. The nightlife, shopping, restaurants and everything else still buzzes as we like it, though! We went to Racha Island with Stephen and Vivienne for two nights and then it was back to Patong for a string of parties with Nikki and Robin and his family, Tracey and Nikki S. Three weeks is far too short a stay for us so next year we are planning to stay much longer. Come and join us!

Paradise Beach

Racha Beach

View from my bungalow on Racha Island

 Surin Beach

Main Beach, Patong

 Laem Sing Beach

Sunset cocktails at SoleMio

Singapore - Old and New

As always we hit the ground running in Singapore. Thanks to our fabulous hosts Dion and Alex for putting up with us/ putting us up once more. We had the usual admin and banking to sort out and our good friends to catch up with. We loved our old favourites like High Tea at the Shangri La, PS Café and Delhi Restaurant. We also loved the night life in Club Street and Ann Siang Hill, which didn't exist when we lived here. What good food at Ding Dong restaurant! We did a pretty good job of exhausting first time visitors Stephen and Vivienne with a jam packed 48hrs in Singapore.
Day One
9am - Breakfast of murtabak and pulled tea in Little India, followed by walking tour of Little India, Arab St and Sim Lim Square for electronics shopping.
1pm - Lunch of dim sum at Din Tai Fung in Paragon and a stroll through the Orchard Road Malls.
4pm - Singapore Slings at the Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel.
5pm - Taxi to Marina Bay Complex with sunset drinks at Ku De Ta at the top of the Marina Bay Sands.
8pm Dinner at a hawker centre and drinks in Club Street.
Day Two
10am - Gardens by the Bay
1pm -  Lunch in Chinatown and a walking tour of Chinatown.
4pm - Clark Quay and Boat Quay for drinks.
8pm - Seafood Dinner at No Sign Board in Geylang.
11pm - Early to bed for that Tiger flight to Phuket at the crack of dawn on Sunday!

Hindu garlands for sale in Little India

View of Gardens by the Bay from Ku De Ta

View of financial district from Ku De Ta

Taxi ride from Shangri La

 Ku De Ta